Meatless Mondays may be on school menu

Students select food items from the lunch line of the cafeteria at Draper Middle School in Rotterdam, N.Y., Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012. The leaner, greener school lunches served under new federal standards are getting mixed grades from students. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink)

/ AP

Students select food items from the lunch line of the cafeteria at Draper Middle School in Rotterdam, N.Y., Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012. The leaner, greener school lunches served under new federal standards are getting mixed grades from students. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink)

Students select food items from the lunch line of the cafeteria at Draper Middle School in Rotterdam, N.Y., Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012. The leaner, greener school lunches served under new federal standards are getting mixed grades from students. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink) (/ AP)

Hold on to your chicken nuggets, San Diego school cafeterias might go meatless on Mondays.

San Diego Unified is poised to become the latest school system to join a national movement that calls for vegetarian menus at the start of every week. The goal is to reduce everything from its carbon footprint to the American obesity epidemic.

The San Diego school board will consider a proposal Tuesday to adopt “Meatless Mondays” at all elementary and K-8 school cafeterias starting in the fall.

Of course, nothing would prevent students from packing a ham sandwich in their lunch box on Mondays or any other day. However, schools would eliminate the popular cheeseburgers, beef gorditas and chicken teriyaki from the menu one day a week.

What’ll be on the Monday menu?

San Diego Unified long ago abandoned the mystery meat that once ruled the lunch line. All schools already offer meatless entrees each day — tofu dishes, black bean burgers, salad bars stocked with local produce, burritos and pasta among them. Those selections would become the Monday staples.

“We are not doing this in terms of promoting vegetarianism,” said board President John Lee Evans. “Elementary kids are younger and they are developing their eating habits. We are promoting good nutrition.”

Nearly 28 percent of San Diego County children are overweight or obese, according to public health statistics. The meatless Mondays proposal from trustee Kevin Beiser and Evans notes that and other facts, such as the high cost associated with obesity and physical inactivity in California, and the greenhouse gas emissions generated by the meat industry.

The American Meat Institute is skeptical of the research and the motives behind this movement that it believes promotes the views of the animal rights groups that support it.

“Why pick on meat? Why not potato chips on Tuesdays? Meatless Mondays have simply become trendy,” said Janet Riley, spokeswoman for the institute, a national trade association representing the companies that process 95 percent of red meat in the country.

Riley said meat has gotten a bad reputation when it’s a vital source of protein, especially for poor children who rely on government-subsidized meals for much of their nutrition.

What’s more, Riley is stumped by San Diego’s plans since its schools already give students plenty of meatless options.

“We get wanting choices. Why would you take away a choice on Mondays?” she said.

A recent survey of elementary school cafeteria trends showed that about 22 percent of the meals selected by students over a 15-day period were vegetarian, said Gary Petill, who oversees San Diego Unified’s food service operation.

If the board approves the policy on Tuesday, he will be charged with implementing it while trying not to steer kids away from the cafeteria. That might mean adding an all-time favorite meal — cheese pizza — to Mondays to entice students to keep eating.

“We don’t want students to stop eating with us,” said Petill, who has been nationally recognized for his efforts to bring nutritional, palatable and locally-grown meals to schools.

San Diego’s middle and high schools will continue their standard lunch menus of vegetarian, beef and chicken meals. The lunch program is successful at secondary schools and Petill worried that changing it even for one day could hurt business, although he could not rule out districtwide meatless Mondays in the future.

San Diego Unified’s proposal has the support of several local and national nonprofits, including the San Diego chapter of the Sierra Club, the Green Party of San Diego, the Farm Animal Rights Movement, and Operation Samahan.

The concept has been pushed by Meatless Monday, a non-profit initiative in association with the Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health. The campaign is designed to encourage people to cut meat consumption by 15 percent to cut greenhouse emissions and improve public health by reduce risks of some diseases.

San Diego rights activist and attorney Bryan Pease said he helped Beiser organize planning meetings for the proposal.

“This is not just about reducing animal cruelty,” said Pease, cofounder of the Animal Protection and Rescue League. “This about nutrition. Kids learn better by starting the week out right with plant-based meals.”

San Diego Unified officials said the shift to meatless Mondays would not save or cost the district any money.